


Once Bitten

by Saraiguma



Category: RWBY
Genre: Child Abuse, F/F, Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:38:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6980983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraiguma/pseuds/Saraiguma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things can never be changed, which makes it all the more surprising when they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Bitten

Nora snorted blearily as an errant beam of morning sunshine hit her eyes, filtered by a half-closed curtain and a close-cropped fringe of blonde hair. She smiled at how much some things seemed to change, the hair that had once been protected with life and limb. One limb anyways. She traced errant fingers along taut stomach muscles, thinking about things that couldn’t, wouldn’t, change.

———

“So this is it then?” Nora asked, trying to keep her voice level. “It’s over?”

“That’s not what I said!” Yang was making no such attempts, moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes. “I just said...I don’t think I can feel that way about you. I’m sorry. I don’t think it would be fair to stay with you.”

“You _don’t_ get to decide what is fair to _me_ Yang.” Nora’s voice was harsher than she liked, she made a conscious attempt to level it out. “We have fun Yang, and if that’s all you want that’s fine with me, just don’t come in here acting all high and mighty like some tragic heroine.”

“Sorry.” Yang’s voice wavered as she fingered the edge of her prosthetic. “It’s just...hard sometimes?”

“I know.” Nora whispered as she wrapped her arm around Yang’s. “Let’s go get some dinner.”

———

A throaty groan let Nora know Yang had joined her in wakefulness. She loosened her grip just enough for her bedmate to turn and wrap her singular arm around her before snuggling the blonde even closer. Yang smelled like clean sweat and lilac, a scent she’d never be able to shake, something firm and dependable.

———

“I was supposed to be able to depend on you!” Yang’s rage was apparent, semblance barely under control. “You were my _partner_ , my, my….” She trailed off.

“I told you you shouldn’t depend on me Yang.” The familiar voice said coolly, expression made unreadable by a stolen White Fang helmet. “That I wasn’t worthy of being your partner, of being…anything else.”

“I gave up my arm for you Blake, I was willing to-to give up _everything!_ ” Yang was seething, barely in control of herself. “For what, so you could run away from us? Go on some harebrained fucking murder plot and nearly get yourself killed _again_?”

“I never asked for your _pity_ Yang, and I have never needed it.” Blake scoffed, making it apparent they would already have left were it not for the ring of huntresses surrounding them. “You should have listened to Weiss you know, I was always going to go running back to the Fang.”

The ex-heiress scowled at the mention of her name. “Don’t you pin this on me Blake, I was ignorant when I joined team RWBY, more ignorant than I thought possible. But I trusted you just as much as Yang, I still do! I just-” Weiss’s steely expression faltered for a heartbeat, nearly imperceptible. “want to know _why_.”

“You know why.” Blake sounded bored now, diffident, as though they’d given this speech a thousand times before. “Hunters and Huntresses are corrupt, in the pocket of Royals and the Military and the moneyed Elite. Corrupt though the Fang is it’s the closest thing to a people’s movement we have and I’m not going to forsake it for…” Blake’s tone rose steadily as they went on. “For Ozpin’s schemes, for his machinations that got Pyrrha killed and Penny destroyed and Vale burned to the fucking ground and who knows how many people we’ll never know the names of ground under his foot!” Their labored breathing and twitching lips made it clear that this part hadn’t been rehearsed.

“Then screw Ozpin!” Their no-longer fresh faced leader stepped towards Blake, angry red scars freshly crossing her face, weapon pointed into the ground. “Do you think I don’t miss Pyrrha? Miss Penny?” Her face didn’t flinch at either name; she’d had no time to grieve and she doubted she ever would. “But Adam and Cinder are just as bad as Ozpin and Glynda, we don’t need to work for any of them, _we_ can do this, _together._ ”

———

Nora watched the sun inch lazily across the room, face buried in Yang’s forehead and tangled in sheets. She knew she should be up and making breakfast, it was her turn after all, but Yang didn’t seem interested in letting go and she didn’t really feel like pressing the issue. Though Lie Ren and the rest of her friends had never held any disdain for her cooking it had always been enough for Yang, no matter what anyone else said.

———

“No daughter of mine will be a _dyke._ ” The words were dripping with venom, and stung more than the slap which had surely left a glowing red handprint on her cheek. “Now you will go to your room, wash your face, and never speak of this again. You are fortunate I will not tell your father.”

Nora’s breath hitched, she and Lie Ren had agreed to come out to their parents at the same time and she had expected this to go a lot better. If her mother was this bad Nora didn’t even want to be here when her father found out; she only hoped Lie Ren was having a better time of it.

“No.” Nora steeled herself, mentally and physically. “I won’t take it back, it’s true, but I’m still your daughter, I’m still Nora. Isn’t that good enough?”

The retaliation was swift and brutal, as expected from Brynhild Valkyrie. Nora saw only a blur before she found herself laying on the ground, lip split and bleeding, stars swimming before her eyes.

“Good enough? _**Good enough?**_ ” Brynhild towered over her daughter, no trace of sympathy or regret showing through the disgust on her face. “You are a disgrace, a pervert, a _freak_.” She spat the word out as though it were burning her tongue. “You will never be good enough for anyone, you will live in the gutter and die alone. You will throw away all I have given you? All I _sacrificed_ for you? For _this?_ ”

Nora found herself pushed into the wall by the collar of her shirt, her mother demanding an answer, afraid to give one that wouldn’t satisfy her. “I’m not throwing anything away. I’m still going to be a huntress, I’m still going to uphold the family name!”

Brynhild growled, shifting her hand from collar to hair and throwing her daughter into the wall. “What school would take a freak like you. How will you pay. Not with _my_ money, not from _my_ house, and certainly not with _my_ father’s name.” She let her daughter slump back to the ground, nose clearly broken and eye already swelling shut before spitting in her face. “If your grandfather could see you now, he would die of shame, _I_ should die of shame.”

“M-mother please I just-.” Nora’s tear-stained plea was cut short as the back of her mother’s hand crossed her lips again.

“Do not ‘mother’ me, you are no child of mine.” Brynhild returned to her feet, wiping her hands on her apron. “If you wish to die alone and unloved it is your choice, but I will have no part in it. Take your suitcase and fill it with your clothes _only_. You will leave now. If my husband arrives before you are gone I will not be responsible for what he does.”

“Y-yes m-mo...ma’am.” Nora’s shock kept her on her feet, piling as many clothes as she could into her suitcase, shoving underwear into every pocket, and wishing a fond farewell to her room, to her life, to her family. She never really thought this would happen, not to her. Her eyes lit on Magnhild. Was there anything more her mother could do if she took it? Probably, she’d just have to be gone before she was found out.

A little rearranging of her suitcase and a few more abandoned outfits left Magnhild inside a cocoon of carefully folded clothes. She bade farewell to her mother and was unsurprised when she did not turn from making dinner, she hesitated before she closed the door. “I love you Mom.”

“No, Stranger.” Brynhild had still not turned and her voice was now ice. “If you loved me you would never have done this, have made this shameful choice. Now go and never darken my door again, and know that this was your choice, your fault.”

Nora drew a ragged breath as she stepped onto the sidewalk. The pain was building but her father was due home soon and she knew her mother would make good on her promise. She set out walking without an idea of a destination, and only realized as she neared the halfway mark that she was heading towards Lie Ren’s house. She smiled, knowing that his parents had been more accepting than hers, that she was welcome at the Lie household, as always.

The smile slid from her face as she rounded the corner and saw Ren sitting quietly on the rock that lay exactly halfway between their houses. They’d met here a thousand times before but this time was different, it had a sense of finality, of Ragnarok itself. As she approached she noticed a small bag sitting beside the rock and several harsh red lines running along the backs of his arms and legs.

“Shorts huh?” Nora grinned through the pain of her split lip reopening. “Not your usual look.”

Lie Ren returned her smile with his own soft upturning of lips, though even with that his newly missing tooth was conspicuous. “I did not have time to change, I apologize for my lapse in standards.”

The two giggled for a few moments before Nora’s laughter broke into a sob. “Is it going to be okay Ren? Are we gonna be alright?”

“As long as we have each other we will.” Lie Ren pulled her into a gentle hug and softly rubbed her lower back. “Team Sloth will always prevail. Slowly and steadily.”

“That’s turtles you dork.” Nora snickered into Ren’s shoulder. “But yeah, Team Sloth.”

———

Nora sat in the kitchen, humming to herself. She had taken advantage of Yang drifting back to sleep to take care of breakfast. Even if she couldn’t have Yang’s heart she was happy here. Her life was great, better than she ever thought it could be. She was comfortable here, and she was proving her mother wrong. She sighed contentedly as she checked on the food, steamed buns, sausage, and a thick porridge she had to import especially from patch.

“Something smells good.” A sleepy voice said from behind her as a single arm draped over her shoulder. “What’s the occasion?”

Nora tilted her head for a half a second before she realized she’d made all of Yang’s favorites and none of her own. “Nothing, just feeling... nostalgic I guess. Thinking about what led us both here and now. Whether it was worth it.”

“Of course it was.” Yang said matter-of-factly. “Despite how shitty all of that was it’s what led us to be here together, almost anything would be worth that.”

“Almost?” Nora asked cheekily.

“Weiss’s cooking, I swear they don’t even know what spices are in Atlas.” The two girls giggled as the taller one hung on the back of the shorter. “Hey Nora.” Nora hummed in acknowledgement of Yang’s softly spoken half-question. “I love you.”

Yang felt panic in her stomach as she felt Nora tense up under her, worried that it was too late, that she had waited too long, that she was unwelcome now. She was surprised when the redhead turned around with tears in her eyes. “I love you too Yang.”


End file.
